New Statcast Statistic Shows Elly De La Cruz Led Major League Baseball in Net Bases Gained in 2024

On Monday, Statcast unveiled new baserunning data that will now be available to both fans and teams. Reds superstar Elly De La Cruz led Major League Ball with +40 Net Bases Gained.

MLB.com's David Adler broke down what this statistic means.

"The new leaderboard introduces Net Bases Gained," Adler wrote. "Think of it as a runner's successful stolen bases above average. Every runner is given credit for his advances via steals and balks, and penalized for his outs made via caught stealings and pickoffs, based on the success probability of all those stolen base opportunities. "

"The difference between a player's base advances vs. average and his outs created vs. average is his Net Bases Gained."

De La Cruz gained 50 bases above average through stolen bases and balks, while his caught stealings and pickoffs cost him 10 bases. This resulted in a net gain of 40 bases, which was six more than any other player.

Statcast has data for these numbers going all the way back to 2016. Former Red Billy Hamilton had 45 Net Bases Gained in 2016 and 41 Net Bases Gained in 2017. Elly's 2024 season puts him in third place since the tracking began, right behind the former Red.

De La Cruz was also ranked as the fourth-best base-stealing run leader and the fourth-best base-running value leader.

Out of his 40 Net Bases Gained, 17 of those were gained by stealing third base, a stat he also led the league in. There were only three players in MLB over 10 Net Bases Gained stealing third.

De La Cruz is an exciting player to watch on the basepaths. Although he gets thrown out occasionally on the bases, these numbers show how valuable he is when he gets on base.

You can read the full article and see the leaderboards here.